Five Leadership Truths to Create an Inspiring Workplace
Authored by WIlliam L. Patenaude, half full, llc Flex Facilitator
Like everyone in the half full family, my passion is helping teams and leaders excel.
More than measuring success with organizational or industry performance measures — although those are important — I want to help companies discover the joy of creating a nurturing, inspiring, and effective workplace, the kind that allows teams to want to come to work and give their all.
And so, I’m beyond grateful for the opportunity to share some of the leadership insights and lessons that I’ve learned over the past three decades. What I’ll offer here — and what I’ll dive deeper into in subsequent blogs — are five truths that leaders like you can consider and, however possible, implement. They’re foundational for team excellence and they go a long way to creating supercharged, nurturing, and even fun workplaces.
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I should start by saying that I learned these lessons in two ways:
Sometimes from my successes as a formal and informal leader — as well as several decades of leadership training, consulting, and coaching.
But mostly I learned them thanks to my blunders and mistakes, the kind that all humans are prone to and that we all can learn from.
Let’s dive in…
BUILD TRUST
Humans are hardwired to live and work in a community. We’re meant to grow together, especially with the support of and recognition from our leaders.
Fundamental to a healthy community is trust. Especially for the community of the workplace. High trust work environments excel because they build employee satisfaction, engagement, and performance.
In subsequent posts, we’ll look at this in greater detail, but for now, asking yourself these questions might be helpful:
Have I and my organization provided ample training and resources for my team to get the job done?
As their leader, have I been clear about the overall goals of the team and expectations for each individual?
And if so, do I trust them to creatively do their jobs without constant oversight?
BE TRANSPARENT
Trust is most often a casualty of a lack of transparency — of withholding information from your team, whether intentionally or not. Sure, sometimes you know things that are confidential. But not everything you know are state secrets.
The more you share about what’s happening within your organization, the more rumors you squash and the more trust you build. And in today’s uncertain world, one thing we all appreciate is up-to-date information about our workplace.
Related Reading: Prioritizing Human Connection in Today’s Workplace
BE FLEXIBLE
Yes, leaders often have to be firm about workplace rules. But not always.
I’m often reminded that organizational expectations and rules can be antiquated, especially when they’re remnants of an age before technologies that keep us connected. Unless there is a clear business reason for a particular workplace rule, give your team the freedom they need to creatively do their jobs, and to do so in an environment that allows them to balance professional growth with their family and personal needs.
SHOW GENUINE, FACT-BASED GRATITUDE
This one is easy, and at half full, llc you’ve likely heard us say it quite a bit as leading with gratitude is core to our value set. Recognizing excellence is the simplest, most effective tool to build morale and employee engagement. Two things to keep in mind:
While recognition is usually best offered publicly, some people prefer to keep such conversations private.
Recognition must be as immediate as possible, and it must be fact-based.
The more specific information you can offer as to the “why” of the recognition, the more authentic it will sound and the more impact it will have.
FAILURES WILL HAPPEN: LEARN FROM THEM
As I mentioned in my opening, mistakes happen. Yes, you can support and train your team’s members as best as humanly possible. And they can strive to succeed as best as humanly possible. But sometimes humanly possible isn’t enough.
Rather than be paralyzed by the certainty of your team’s occasional mistakes, we’re better off acknowledging the reality of failure — and embracing the lessons they invariably offer. Moreover, trying to program out failure most often creates a rigid workplace where creativity and excellence cannot thrive.
In short, leaders are best not to berate team members who try their best and that try new things, and in the process make a mistake — even a costly one. Rather, good leaders say, “What can we learn from this?”
In subsequent posts, I’ll dive deeper into each of these five lessons and share others as well. My goal will be to explore an array of basic tools that can be implemented almost immediately — although I always encourage people to begin slowly. Rather than adopt new approaches all at once, we’re better off in choosing one way at a time to improve, and to stay focused on that one thing until we’ve mastered its implementation to the point of adopting it without having to think about it.
And so, a good deal of information and inspiration is ahead. I look forward to journeying with you in the discovery of growing as managers, leaders, and most importantly, as people who find that life’s greatest joy comes from helping others grow, succeed, and excel.